Many waste treatment processes utilize thermal energy to break up waste materials into their constituent elements or more desirable compounds. The use of thermal energy generally to break down materials is referred to as pyrolization. Molten metals have been used as a reactant for pyrolizing certain waste materials. In particular, molten aluminum has been used to react with halogenated hydrocarbons and produce aluminum salts. U.S. Pat. No. 4,469,661 to Schultz described the destruction of PCB and other halogenated hydrocarbons by contacting the PCB vapor with molten metallic aluminum. The aluminum was contained in low-boiling eutectic mixtures of aluminum and zinc or aluminum, zinc and magnesium. Schultz also suggested eutectic reactant mixtures containing iron, calcium, and other metals.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,101 to Wagner disclosed a process for pyrolizing hazardous waste material in molten alkaline metal alloys. The molten metal alloy comprised approximately 50% aluminum, 5% to 15% calcium, 5% to 15% copper, 5% to 15% iron, and 5% to 15% zinc. U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,919 to Wagner disclosed a reactant alkaline metal alloy composition comprising between 40% to 95% aluminum, 1% to 25% iron, 1% to 25% calcium, 1% to 25% copper, and 1% to 25% zinc. The '919 Wagner patent also disclosed that magnesium could be substituted for calcium but this substitution was seen as having no advantage. In both of these Wagner patents, the waste material was reacted in the molten alloy held at about 800 degrees Celsius.
In the process disclosed in the above-described Wagner patents, chlorine atoms in the waste material was stripped from the waste compound by the highly reactive aluminum in the reactant molten alloy. The aluminum and chlorine combined to form aluminum chloride. Both the aluminum chloride and carbon released from the waste material in the pyrolization process sublimed to a gaseous state at the 800 degree Celsius reaction temperature and were drawn off and separated.